125 killed after on pitch riot at soccer match in Indonesia

125 people have lost their lives following incidents at the end of a soccer match in Indonesia. At the end of the match, the fans of both teams invaded the field, unleashing a fierce on pitch riot. The police responded by firing tear gas into the crowds which ended up provoking a stampede towards the stadium gates which ended in people being crushed trying to escape. These figures were updated after Indonesian authorities reported 175 deaths.

Few people now remember that the origin of the drama at Kanjuruhan Stadium was the home defeat (2-3) in the match between Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya. A meeting between two fierce rivals, who were not even playing for anything, as they wander around the mid-table of the Indonesian Premier League. That did not matter. In a stadium with a capacity of 38,000, 42,000 people were crammed into the stadium, an early indication of the disaster that was about to unfold.

Overcrowding, violence, tear gas, etc.

As soon as the match ended, some 3,000 people invaded the pitch. Some to celebrate the victory, while many home fans tried to attack their team's players and the opposing fans. The police intervened quickly and forcefully, in an action that is being now being reviewed by the country's authorities and reported to be, for many experts, the main cause of the stampede that caused most of the deaths by suffocation and crushing at the gates of the stadium.

From the first moment that images reached the social networks, it showed the seriousness of the events, immediately thereafter, there was talk of more than 100 deaths. This data would end up falling well short of the actual numbers.

Police action investigated

"They all died from chaos, overcrowding, trampling and suffocation," explained East Java Police Chief Nico Afinta. For his part, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has expressed "his deepest condolences" and called for "a thorough evaluation of the execution of soccer matches" and "the security procedures for holding them," as well as an investigation to "thoroughly ascertain" the events that occured in Malang.

It has been more than 50 years since something like this has been experienced in a soccer stadium. Only once has a match ended in a tragedy with more deaths. It happened in 1964, in Lima's National Stadium when a match between Peru and Argentina left a macabre record of 328 dead.